Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - GBBD Oct 2011

Welcome to My Nice Garden! This was a birthday gift from my darling daughter last month. I think it's a doe that looks like Bambi. The little garden helper with the Welcome signage shall be my companion while I am all alone tending to my garden, standing in for my DH, the non-gardener.

“Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - GBBD Oct 2011”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on October 15th, 2011

Bauhinia acuminata - The Snowy Orchid Tree

Thanks to your clues, smart observations and comments on my previous post "UFO on UFO", the flower and the bug has been identified.

The flower is Bauhinia acuminata while the bug is Amata huebneri. Both the flower and the bug are natives here.

The flowers of the Bauhinia acuminata is about 3 inches in diameter. Each flower has 5 petals which are a bright white in colour. When in bloom, they look like snowflakes on the branches and they also exude a nice fragrance with a hint of the scent of roses.  You can use them as cut flowers.

The leaves are shaped like ox-hooves.

“Bauhinia acuminata”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on June 1st, 2011.

UFO on a UFO

There is an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) on this leguminous Unidentified Flowering Object (UFO). The photographs are taken at the Rooftop Secret Garden of 1-Utama.

“UFO on a UFO”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on May 31st, 2011.

Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) The Largest in the World? PBF Part 5 - Wordless Wednesday

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“Atlas Moth (Attacus atlas) The Largest in the World? PBF Part 5 - Wordless Wednesday”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/ on March 9th, 2011.

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To participate and/or view other entries, please visit Wordless Wednesday website here.

The moth has been sighted in John & Jacqs home garden in Malaysia. Her post is here.

Updated on 22 Aug 2011:

A pair of mating Atlas Moths

The male is on the left while the female is on the right. The female moth is larger, heavier but sexually passive. She does not stray far from her chrysalis but stay perched at an angle where the air currents can best carry her powerful pheromones. Male moths are smaller in size with more tapered wings. They are more active and they fly around nocturnally. Their large bushy antennae are equiped with chemoreceptors to help detect pheromones from several km away. This helps to track down their mate. Once mated, the female starts to lay eggs and hence begin another new life cycle of the Atlas Moth. The process of mating and oviposition can happen on the same day she is born!

Their life span is very short i.e. only 1-2 weeks and it seems that they live for the sole purpose of propagating the next generation. Such is the beauty of Nature!

There's a saying,

"The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough".

~Rabindranath Tagore

Note: The image above has been published with permission from Ker Ai Choo. My grateful thank you very much.

From the Garbage to My Garden and the Kitchen

“From the Garbage to My Garden and the Kitchen”, a copyrighted post, was written for My Nice Garden blog by Autumn Belle @ http://www.mynicegarden.com/

I have been growing pineapple plants from the crowns of store bought pineapples since 2004. I grow them all in flower pots with a diameter of about 1 foot. I put a roller at the bottom of each pot, just in case I need to move it around. Each pineapple costs me RM 2.00 - RM 5.00 (about a US dollar) depending on the type of pineapple and the mood of the vendor. I normally use the pineapples for prayers and after that, I'll eat it or use it to cook curry or make pineapple fried rice. Now, instead of throwing the crown into the garbage bin, I use it to grow a pineapple plant that will bear fruit for my kitchen use.

Growing pineapples is a long term investment, judging from the fact that I have to wait at least 18 months before it starts to flower.

The above plant was grown from a single crown and it is more than one year old now. Sometime ago, it started to 'reproduce' and ended up with additional 6 offsprings. Now, it looks as though I have 7 pineapple plants in a single container. They are so close together I can't differentiate which is the mother plant and which are the suckers, slips or ratoons. How nice if all of them flower at the same time! Maybe I'm getting too greedy, hah?

This baby is just a few months old. It seemed to have firmly rooted on the soil. Only one pineapple plant here. I used to have some blue Torenia fournieri in my garden but it had died back and disappeared completely a few months ago. I am planting some pink ones now. Recently, the blue torenias reappeared in my garden and I can find the little ones everywhere, from the front to the back yard. This one has moved in to live with my baby pineapple plant. Meanwhile, I don't mind since it makes the pot look good anyway.

I have a link below which may be of interest to you regarding growing pineapples in temperate zones. The site is called Tropical Permaculture.

How to make Pineapple Fried Rice - My simple homemade DIY recipe:
Fry some finely chopped garlic in cooking oil and a few drops of sesame oil in a heated pan. Add in some chopped pineapple flesh. You may also add some prawns, mince meat or finely chopped french beans if you like. Stir fry until fragrant. Next, add some leftover rice and stir fry until the rice look like it is jumping up and down the pan. Make a hole in the middle, add an egg and let the egg half cook before you mix them all together. Add some salt and pepper. Using leftover rice that is more than a day old makes the fried rice taste better.

For expert recipes with exact measurements, please visit Kuali at my sidebar. Search using keywords, "Pineapple Fried Rice" .

I have some leftover turmeric rhizomes so, I place them in a pot of soil. It seemed to take ages but I was overjoyed to see 2 new shoots popping out. Isn't it like magic? This dried up thing just came alive!

I have some leftover lengkuas (galangal) too. We use it to make delicious dishes. It looked quite old and 'beaten' when I placed it in a bag of soil. This is a used polythene bag, recycled from that of another plant that I had repotted. The lengkuas 'hibernated' for a few weeks before new shoots appeared. I have since transplanted it on the ground. I hope it will grow enough foliage to make the small area look exotic.

This leftover ordinary ginger took the longest to germinate new shoots. First I wrapped it in some old newspapers for a week or so before I placed it some soil in a small flower pot. I waited another few weeks before shoots appeared. Then I transplanted it to the ground.

I use ginger in almost every dish that I cook. I took the most ginger during my 100 days confinement period after childbirth and delivery. Anyway that was a long long time ago.

Can you find the caterpillar? It is under my watermark. This guy is good at camouflage, ain't he? He has walloped most of my pink vinca plant. But never mind, it's okay.

Please help me identify this plant.

It looks like Indian Borage. I have been growing it for 6 years and it is driving me crazy not knowing it's name. Can you live with someone for so long without knowing his/her name?

Some clues:
Someone gave it to me saying that I can make tea with the fresh leaves as a remedy for high blood pressure and diabetes. She said the name was lemon basil. It is the staple food for Blastoise my pet tortoise.

Thanks to Anonymous from The Kebun, a Homestay, Organic Farm near Kuching, East Malaysia who provided this link, the above plant has been identified as Gynura procumbrens, a medicinal herb. It's malay name is Pokok Sambung Nyawa  or Life Extending Plant. I have never seen this plant bear any flowers.

Scientific name: Lyssa zampa

Common name: Laos brown butterfly

It is a species of moth from the Uraniidae family and commonly found in Malaysia and Indonesia. It's wing span is between 100-160mm and flies from June to August. Its larvae feeds on the endospermum species of plants. (Source: Wikipedia)

Do you know him?

This "flying trapeze" found hanging from my bamboo plant is about the size of my palm, which is 6 inches or 15cm in diameter. It can fly quite fast. It can be a moth or butterfly. I photographed this fella at about 9am in the morning of June 12th, 2010 which coincided with the first day of the 5th Lunar month, a new moon day. Oh, yeah, on the 5th day of the 5th lunar month is our Dumpling Festival (Duanwu Festival) cum Dragon Boat Festival. I just found out about the photograph date coincidence when I checked back my original pictures and it is ringing some superstitious bells in my head now.

While doing research on the internet, I found that in Thailand, people make a blue drink from the Butterfly Pea (Clitoria ternatea) flowers. They will serve it with a jar of sweet pandan flavoured syrup and a citrus fruit. So I did an experiment and made my own blue drink. Without the syrup, it is almost tasteless. However, when I added a few drops of calamansi (citrus lime) juice and stirred, the solution turned purple. Magic, magic, magic!

This is my entry for Fertilizer Friday. Tootsie, here I come! To visit other FF post, please visit Tootsie at Tootsie Time. Click here.

Note: Updates to this post are highlighted in blue, links provided in red.

A Garden By The Beach

Ever since joining Blotanical and becoming a blotanist blogger, I have begun to view the environment that I live in from a different light. Our world is indeed rich in flora and fauna everywhere. I have discovered a garden in every place that I visit. The beauty of nature has been all around us since time immemorial. We just need to be a little bit more observant in order to appreciate it.

Today, I would like to invite you on a trip to Port Dickson and explore a garden by the beach.

Port Dickson aka PD, is a coastal town located 80 km or about an hour's drive by car from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital city. It is a holiday and leisure destination for tourists as well as locals. PD was founded by Sir Frederick Dickson during the 1880's colonial era as a deep seawater port. When PD failed to live up to its expectations as a busy performing port, it was later developed into a seaside resort, frequented by the British and the local people.

Today, we are visiting The Legend Water Chalets resort and I'll be showing you around the gardens there.

This is a Hymenocallis speciosa or the common Spider Lily. I think it is called the bunga bakung here. It is an amazing plant that is very useful in landscaping. It is a herbaceous perennial that flowers the whole year through. I'm sure many of you have seen this plant before. It has long glossy leaves and pure white flowers. Does it remind you of spidey and perhaps Little Miss Muffet too? The resort here uses this spider lily as a border plant surrounding its signage near the main entrance to the lobby.

The botanical name of this vine with bright yellow flowers is Tristellateia australasiae (Maiden's Jealousy). Its common names include Shower of Gold, Vining Galphimia or Vining Milkweed

It is a vigorous climber. Each flower has 5 petals and red stamens. Leaves are ovate to lance-shaped and has a lush green colour. The flowers bloom in clusters of up to 30 flowers. Native to South East Asia, it is a woody, evergreen vine that flowers the whole year through.

Here, this shower of gold climber is planted on the ground and trained to sprawl beautifully on a trelis next to the wall of this buiding that houses the gym and sports room. Sharing the same space with it, we also have the Sansevieria Trifasciata aka Snake plant aka Mother-in-law's tongue. We also call it the Lidah Jin meaning genie's tongue. Which name do you prefer, the genie's tongue or a mother-in-law's tongue?

Christmas Palm (Adonidia merrilii)

The people working here tells me that this is the Areca nut. Areca nut, also known as the pinang or betel nut is the fruit of the Areca Catechu tree, a species of palms that grows in South Asia and the tropical Pacific.

If it is pinang, then I have a story to tell you. In the old days, slices of the areca nut is wraped in betel leaves and chewed for its mild stimulant effect. Lime and sometimes other spices like clove and cardamon or even a tobacco leaf or two are added to the wrap. This method of chewing blackens the teeth and stains the mouth deep red. The red saliva is spit out and we used to see this red slime staining our roads and floors. Chewing of the areca nut is a tradition that dates back to thousands of years. This ritual used to be pratised widely by the local people but now it is no longer popular among the younger generation.

There is a malay proverb, "bagai pinang dibelah dua" which can be translated to "like an areca nut cut into half". It is used to denote newly weds who are very compatible with each other.

Updated on 28 Oct 2011 - The tree above is Adonidia merrillii, synonym Veitchia merrillii, common name Manila Palm or Chrismas Palm.

Along the path that leads to the beach, you will come across this beautiful Thunbergia Grandiflora, growing vibrantly along the fencing. It is a giant vine with cascading pale lilac flowers and large green leathery leaves. Native to India, this plant is also known as the trumpet vine or Bengal clock vine.

The flowers look like a giant morning glory. In the mornings, you shall be able to see some fat black bees buzzing around, busy collecting nectar for their Queen.

This is the way to the beach. The path on the left is lined with evergreens, coconut and palm trees. The boat in the front is for hire for kayaking while the boat at the back is for display only.

This coconut tree has many ripening coconuts. I prefer dinking coconut juice from young coconuts while the flesh of the older ones are scraped to make coconut milk or coconut floss for cooking. Toddy aka Indian wine, is a palm beer made from the fermentation of the sap from budding coconut flowers. Toddy used to be a very popular drink among our local people where toddy joints sprung up in small towns, estates and plantations. Nowadays, we can even find toddy sold as a local beer / exotic drink in seafood restaurants, one example being at the Coconut Flower Seafood Restaurant in Telok Gong, Klang.

This signage says that turtles come here to PD beach during the egg laying season from February - June. Glory Beach Resort is just next door to The Lengend Water Chalets Resort.

This is actually an orange Ixora flower.

This time, I was very excited to see a flock of Asian Glossy Starlings (Aplonis Panayensis) feeding on some oil palm fruits. I think they are having a buffet breakfast just like the one I had at the resort cafe.

These starlings are very small birds with glossy black feathers and striking bright red eyes.

This patch of green is actually the Beach Morning Glory or Goat's Foot. Its scientific name is Ipomoea pres-caprae, a creeping vine that grows along the upper parts of the beach.

I love its bright pink-purple flowers and big green heart shaped leaves.

Urapteroides astheniata (Uraniidae)

This is a snow white butterfly or moth? I spotted it in the early morning.

Updated on 10th March 2011. The above moth is Urapteroides astheniata (Uraniidae).
Sources: Wikipedia, Moths of Borneo and Moths of Australia.

Can somebody tell me the correct name of this plant?

This picture above shows the seeds or is it buds?

Updated: The fruits of Scaevola taccada are white when ripe.

This picture shows the fan-like flowers of the same plant. The white creature above was resting on the leaves of this plant.

Thanks to Scott and Liz, the above plant has been identified as follows:
Scientific name: Scaevola taccada

Synonyms: S. sericea, S. frutescens

Common name: Sea Lettuce

Malay name: Ambong-ambong

Finally, to complete the day, I wish to show you this photograph of the beautiful sunset that I had captured from my hotel room balcony.

Hope you enjoyed the visit.

Till we meet again in my next post, Cheers and Happy Weekend to you all!

Sources of linked information:

a) Wikipedia

b) Toptropicals.com

c) Floridata.com

d) John&Jacq~s at jaycjayc.com

My grateful thank you to the above websites.

This is also my entry for Today's Flowers #59. To view other posts around the world, click here.